Equitable Procurement Initiative
The Equitable Procurement Initiative is a collaboration between the Department of Supplier Diversity (DSD) and the Finance Cabinet to support local, small, diverse businesses, and create policies and programs that support a more equitable, transparent, and data-driven procurement system.
BACKGROUND
WHY EQUITY IN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT MATTERS
Mayor Michelle Wu recognizes that the City has a responsibility to improve the lives of its residents and that by creating pathways to economic mobility, we can ensure that our residents can build generational wealth and that our neighborhoods can thrive.
A key lever that the City controls to advance the goal of shared economic progress is its spending power through its contracts. These contracts are an important tool for building the capacity, reputation, and experience of local, small businesses. By awarding a greater share of contracts to Boston’s small businesses, they will be able to grow large enough to hire more residents, pay family-sustaining wages, provide meaningful benefits, and stabilize our neighborhoods.
That is why Mayor Wu has charged the Department of Supplier Diversity (DSD) and the Finance Cabinet to advance the City’s supplier diversity goals by both supporting local, small, diverse firms, and creating policy and programs that support a more equitable, transparent, and data-driven procurement system. This collaborative effort is called the Equitable Procurement Initiative.
Equity in City Contracts Report
This report is published annually and provides insight into City contracting and how supplier diversity programs, tools, and initiatives have supported certified minority- and women-owned businesses.
CITY CONTRACTING DASHBOARD
The Equity in City Contracting Dashboard provides additional transparency and visibility into the City’s progress toward meeting its supplier diversity goals. The dashboard measures the percentage (%) and total dollar value ($) of its 1) discretionary spending and 2) contract awards with businesses certified by the City of Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
This dashboard contains data from Fiscal Year 2019 (starting July 1st, 2018) to Fiscal Year 2025 Quarter 1 (ending September 30th, 2025). It also contains multiple pages that report on discretionary spending and contract awards with small-/locally-owned businesses. Use the arrows at the bottom of the page to navigate between dashboard pages. The data in the dashboard will also be available for download in its entirety from our open data platform, Analyze Boston.
EXPLORE DASHBOARD MORE GIVE FEEDBACK
DISCRETIONARY SPENDING RESULTS
CONTRACT AWARD RESULTS
OVERVIEW
In 2022, Mayor Wu filed a home rule petition via the City Council entitled “A Petition for a Special Law Re: An Act Relative to 30B,” which in turn was sent to the Massachusetts State Legislature after unanimous passage by Council members. The bill was later approved by the Legislature in July 2022.
The new Inclusive Quote Contract law raised the written quote contract threshold for purchases made by the City of Boston from $50,000 to $250,000 (the Massachusetts Small Purchase threshold) when those contracts are with certified disadvantaged businesses. With this new law in place, a City department can reach out to at least three certified disadvantaged businesses for written quotes on contracts valued up to $250,000.
BENEFITS OF THE IQC
Compared to procurements through Requests for Proposals or Invitation for Bids processes, the requests for written quote(s) contract process is significantly simpler and cost-effective for both small, local businesses and City departments.
- It allows disadvantaged businesses to avoid the high overhead of staff time and legal services required for the preparation of more formal competitive bids.
- It also allows for City staff to use a simplified process to procure higher values of supplies and services if purchased from small, local, disadvantaged businesses.
You can learn more about the Inclusive Quote Contract and see a list of awarded IQCs by visiting our Inclusive Quote Contract page on boston.gov.
OVERVIEW
The City of Boston’s Sheltered Market Program (SMP) – made possible by Section 18 of Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 30B, which permits the establishment of such a program – was piloted in December 2021 and adopted as a permanent program in August 2022.
This program allows cities and towns in the Commonwealth, through their Chief Financial Officer or Chief Procurement Officer, to designate specific contracts or types of contracts as open to bids from only disadvantaged vendors.
Contracts designated in the SMP continue to follow the competitive bid process. That means businesses must submit a proposal that will be evaluated against all other proposals according to specific criteria. But, in this case, only certain minority- and women-owned businesses are eligible to submit a bid.
Procedures
The City of Boston has written procedures that govern the Sheltered Market Program. Each SMP contract must be designated by the Governing Panel, which includes:
- Chief Financial Officer
- Chief of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion
- Chief of Equity
- City Auditor
You can learn more about the Sheltered Market Program, read the procedures, and see contracts awarded under the SMP by visiting our Sheltered Market Program page on boston.gov.
WHAT IS A DISPARITY STUDY?
A disparity study examines whether there are differences between:
- the percentage of dollars that minority- and woman-owned businesses received in contracts during a specific time period, and
- the percentage of dollars that those businesses would be expected to receive based on their availability to perform those contracts.
CITY OF BOSTON 2020 STUDY
In 2021, the City released the results of the 2020 Disparity Study conducted by BBC Research & Consulting. Through a rigorous analysis of 47,000 contracts that the City awarded between 2014-2019, the study found that spending with white women- and minority-owned businesses represented a combined 11%, or 8.5% and 2.5% respectively, of all City discretionary spending. Further, 0.4% and 0.8% were awarded to Black and Hispanic businesses, respectively.
PARTNERS
CITY OF BOSTON X OPEN CONTRACTING PARTNERSHIP
Beginning in 2023, the City has been working with the Open Contracting Partnership (OCP) as a part of the 2023 - 2025 Lift program cohorts. For the past 14 months, OCP has been helping the City of Boston's Procurement, Supplier Diversity and Analytics Departments advance Boston's ambitious plan to increase the participation of disadvantaged businesses in City contracting and make data about the City's contract awards and spending with these types of businesses publicly available. Boston is joining cities like Portland, Oregon, and countries like Chile, Senegal, and Lithuania in using public contracting to support more economically equitable communities.
The Open Contracting Partnership (OCP) is an independent non-profit public charity 501(c)(3) working in over 50 countries. OCP works collaboratively with governments, businesses, civil society, and technologists to break down silos and transform government contracting on a global scale. They focus on ensuring that public funds are spent openly, fairly, and efficiently on the public contracts that often represent governments' largest expenditures. Through the integration of open data and open government principles, OCP advocates for procurement systems that are fair, efficient, and equitable. Their work highlights the importance of public contracts in delivering essential services to citizens and the power of procurement to advance critical social and economic outcomes that strengthen communities and economies.
